Cultural Capitals

[This is an excerpt from the Prodigy Book]

Prodigy takes place in and around the Sea of Shadows, a mystical place south of the equator, where myths and legends lurk just beyond city gates. This world is diverse in peoples, places, creatures, and beliefs. Consequently, there are many ways to wealth and secrets to uncover for the bold and clever.

         For ease of use, the Sea of Shadows divides into several cultural capitals, urban locations that represent the confluences and conflicts present within the game’s setting. Chapter 14 discusses each in more detail. Games should start in or near one of these cities, moving elsewhere as the players desire.

Blyth is a hotbed of anti-Tarluskani activity. Rebels flock to the city, whose Tarluskani overlords grow increasingly draconian in response.

The Catacombs are the underground holt of the Archivist people and home to the best libraries and research apparatus imaginable. The Catacombs sponsors teams of scholar-explorers to acquire new knowledge and bring it home.

Glenden Wood is the home of vice and free enterprise. Almost anything imaginable can be found there, for a price.

Hackerith Hill straddles the two territories of the Tarluskani Empire: the Khanite cities and Deliverance. Yet its proximity to the jungle and Nithya have weakened the Tarluskani Empire’s hold over the city.

Jask is home to a deeply divided Tarluskani population. Many have grown comfortable in their role as people of property and bureaucratic power, but nostalgia for a nomadic past is rapidly rising. The enslaved Khanites sit precariously between these two factions.

Korg hosts the dreaded Pirate Sovereigns of Korg, with their gem-hued magics, who protect the islands from the Tarluskani’s advances yet also terrorize the indigenous peoples who were there first.

Ophir is the largest city on the Wildlands, the capital of the Yanera tribes, and one of the few places in the savannah welcoming of foreigners.

Reyjadin, once named Avondon, is the heart of the Tarluskani Empire’s expansionary efforts. The Tarluskani reforms have brought new wealth and prosperity to the city, some of which have trickled down to its inhabitants.

Sha’aryam is both a ruined Azintheen city and the nearby encampment. Glory seekers brave the city’s metal defenders for untold wealth and long-lost technologies.

Tarlusya, capital of the Tarluskani Empire, is a decadent place, having grown fat from the sweat and blood of the enslaved Khanites.

Yrsh sits on Saharjin’s edge and is just as mercurial as the magical rainforest. The jungle’s ever-present threat has forced an uneasy alliance between the Tarluskani authorities, Nithya forest-worshippers, and Azintheen explorers.